Alexander Calder. Blue Feather, c. 1948 - © Calder Foundation

Per molti le vacanze di Natale potrebbero essere l’attesa occasione per recarsi a quelle mostre d’arte, che durante l’anno non hanno tempo di visitare. Ve ne suggerirò una magnifica, che è aperta già da qualche tempo al Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma, e coniuga pittura, scultura e fotografia: si tratta, infatti, della grande retrospettiva dedicata ad Alexander Calder; la prima nella Capitale a celebrare, nella maniera più completa, la variegata opera dell’artista statunitense, principalmente noto per i suoi mobile e stabile. La mostra è stata curata da Alexander S.C. Rower, presidente della Fondazione Calder di New York e nipote di Calder.

Ugo Mulas. Alexander Calder, Saché, 1963 - ©Eredi Ugo Mulas

Divisa in sette sezioni, ripercorre puntualmente il cammino e l’evoluzione di questo artista, che ha rivoluzionato la concezione dell’arte, a partire addirittura dai suoi primissimi lavori in lamiera, opere di un undicenne Calder nel quale si intuisce già il preponderante interesse per un’arte che sia viva e mobile, partecipe del mondo reale.

“Perché l’arte deve essere statica? Se osservi un’opera astratta, che sia una scultura o un quadro, vedi un’intrigante composizione di piani, sfere e nuclei che non hanno senso. Sarebbe perfetto, ma è pur sempre arte statica. Il passo successivo nella scultura è il movimento”, affermerà difatti nel 1932 esordendo con i suoi mobile.

La mostra, così, si dipana nei locali del Palazzo delle Esposizioni in un percorso tanto vario quanto interessante: dalle prime wire sculpture, opere ancora iconiche in fil di ferro, e dai primi dipinti (ancora palesemente legati ad una pittura più tradizionale) al rivoluzionario Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere del 1932-33, primo mobile ideato per essere sospeso al soffitto; di sala in sala si procede verso opere dove la poetica di Calder risulta sempre più compiuta in una progressiva frammentazione ed articolazione di forme e colori e trasparenze, che penetrano lo spazio in un tripudio dell’immaginazione e inducono il visitatore allo stupore; non mancano nemmeno le insolite opere di gioielleria.

Ugo Mulas. Alexander Calder, Saché 1963 - ©Eredi Ugo Mulas

La location e l’allestimento sono quanto mai propizi a questa mostra e per l’ampiezza e l’altezza dei locali (essendoci anche opere di formato particolarmente grande), e per la ben studiata illuminazione.

Al piano di sopra, oltre a una interessante sezione dedicata a filmati d’epoca, possiamo ammirare – come una mostra nella mostra – un gran numero di stampe in bianco e nero di Ugo Mulas, le quali raccontano da una parte “l’affinità genetica tra le opere e l’artista che le faceva” (come ebbe a dire Giulio Carlo Argan), dall’altra il lavoro e il quotidiano di Calder e famiglia nelle sue case di Roxbury e Saché (negli USA e in Francia), ma pure evidenziano la profonda amicizia che legò Mulas all’artista americano.

La mostra sarà aperta fino al 14 febbraio.

A partire dal 13 gennaio avranno luogo “I mercoledì di Calder“, una serie di incontri che si terranno ogni mercoledì alle ore 18.30 presso il Palazzo delle Esposizioni, nei quali alcuni docenti, curatori e storici dell’arte saranno chiamati a discutere diversi aspetti dell’opera di Calder. L’incontro conclusivo (del 10 febbraio) sarà dedicato proprio al vasto corpus di immagini scattate da Ugo Mulas e alla nascita del libro, pubblicato nel 1971, che le conteneva.

Per leggere il programma di questi incontri, cliccate qui.

Ugo Mulas. Alexander Calder con Snow Flurry, Saché 1963 - ©Eredi Ugo Mulas

mobiles on a wire

yesterday’s k.t. blue art class had us hanging from the rafters! our featured artist was alexander calder (or “sonny” as he liked to be called…who knew?). other little known facts about sonny…he created his first sculpture at the age of 4, he worked for a toy manufacturer when he was young and now you can see those toys on display in a museum in Massachusetts, and he used to make jewelry for his sister’s dolls out of wire he found on the street outside of his house. we discussed calder’s use of different materials in his mobiles as well as his “stabiles” which were rooted to the ground but nevertheless featured movable parts.

to create our own mobiles (and because the spirit of the holidays was thick in the air seeing as it was the last day of school for all of the kids in the class) we made holiday mobiles. i rigged two blue plastic hangers together with silvery wire to make a star-like foundation for the mobile. i strung a piece of string from one end of the classroom to the other so the mobiles could be hanging which the children worked on them. then, the children were free to create their own vision of a holiday mobile from paper, tinsel, victorian santa cut-outs, shiny beads and snowflakes. some children opted to create a “wish mobile” in which they would attach little pieces of paper with their christmas wishes on them, i.e “dog”, “cookies” and, for one delightful child “kimodo dragon.” (mom, are you listening?)

more mobiles

the finished products were delightful and creative and festive. i’m really looking forward to putting together next years’ syllabus and incorporating some classic craft projects in as well, i.e. learning about native american basket weaving, victorian decoupage, etc.

before i forget, thank you to all of the children who have been this years’ k.t. blue art classes so fun and happy and whimsical and fulfilling. you are all my favorite artists…

Author: Frank Novak, Owner

I recently met LA artist Aaron Seville who makes these wonderful atomic sculptures that seem to be inspired by atomic particle models from science class and the George Nelson ball clock. They manage to work as art without being too Googie. The aesthetic is actually closer to Alexander Calder’s early sculptures than midcentury coffee shops.

For more information contact: Aaron Seville at areamodern@aol.com

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Former WiZiQ product manager Vikrama Dhiman responded to one of my tweets with a full-blown blogpost, thereby giving support to Matt Mullenweg’s point that microblogging goes hand-in-hand with “macroblogging.”

My tweet:

enjoys draft æsthetics yet wishes more developers would release stable products. / adopte certains produits trop rapidement.

Vikrama’s post:

Good Enough Software Does Not Mean Bad Software « Agile Diary, Agile Introduction, Agile Implementation.

My reply:

“To an engineer, good enough means perfect. With an artist, there’s no such thing as perfect.” (Alexander Calder)

Thanks a lot for your kind comments. I’m very happy that my tweet (and status update) triggered this.

A bit of context for my tweet (actually, a post from Ping.fm, meant as a status update, thereby giving support in favour of conscious duplication, «n’en déplaise aux partisans de l’action contre la duplication».)

I’ve been thinking about what I call the “draft æsthetics.” In fact, I did a podcast episode about it. My description of that episode was:

Sometimes, there is such a thing as “Good Enough.”

Though I didn’t emphasize the “sometimes” part in that podcast episode, it was an important part of what I wanted to say. In fact, my intention wasn’t to defend draft æsthetics but to note that there seems to be a tendency toward this æsthetic mode. I do situate myself within that mode in many things I do, but it really doesn’t mean that this mode should be the exclusive one used in any context.

That aforequoted tweet was thus a response to my podcast episode on draft æsthetics. “Yes, ‘good enough’ may work, sometimes. But it needs not be applied in all cases.”

As I often get into convoluted discussions with people who seem to think that I condone or defend a position because I take it for myself, the main thing I’d say there is that I’m not only a relativist but I cherish nuance. In other words, my tweet was a way to qualify the core statement I was talking about in my podcast episode (that “good enough” exists, at times). And that statement isn’t necessarily my own. I notice a pattern by which this statement seems to be held as accurate by people. I share that opinion, but it’s not a strongly held belief of mine.

Of course, I digress…

So, the tweet which motivated Vikrama had to do with my approach to “good enough.” In this case, I tend to think about writing but in view of Eric S. Raymond’s approach to “Release Early, Release Often” (RERO). So there is a connection to software development and geek culture. But I think of “good enough” in a broader sense.

Disclaimer: I am not a coder.

The Calder quote remained in my head, after it was mentioned by a colleague who had read it in a local newspaper. One reason it struck me is that I spend some time thinking about artists and engineers, especially in social terms. I spend some time hanging out with engineers but I tend to be more on the “artist” side of what I perceive to be an axis of attitudes found in some social contexts. I do get a fair deal of flack for some of my comments on this characterization and it should be clear that it isn’t meant to imply any evaluation of individuals. But, as a model, the artist and engineer distinction seems to work, for me. In a way, it seems more useful than the distinction between science and art.

An engineer friend with whom I discussed this kind of distinction was quick to point out that, to him, there’s no such thing as “good enough.” He was also quick to point out that engineers can be creative and so on. But the point isn’t to exclude engineers from artistic endeavours. It’s to describe differences in modes of thought, ways of knowing, approaches to reality. And the way these are perceived socially. We could do a simple exercise with terms like “troubleshooting” and “emotional” to be assigned to the two broad categories of “engineer” and “artist.” Chances are that clear patterns would emerge. Of course, many concepts are as important to both sides (“intelligence,” “innovation”…) and they may also be telling. But dichotomies have heuristic value.

Now, to go back to software development, the focus in Vikrama’s Agile Diary post…

What pushed me to post my status update and tweet is in fact related to software development. Contrary to what Vikrama presumes, it wasn’t about a Web application. And it wasn’t even about a single thing. But it did have to do with firmware development and with software documentation.

The first case is that of my Fonera 2.0n router. Bought it in early November and I wasn’t able to connect to its private signal using my iPod touch. I could connect to the router using the public signal, but that required frequent authentication, as annoying as with ISF. Since my iPod touch is my main WiFi device, this issue made my Fonera 2.0n experience rather frustrating.

Of course, I’ve been contacting Fon’s tech support. As is often the case, that experience was itself quite frustrating. I was told to reset my touch’s network settings which forced me to reauthenticate my touch on a number of networks I access regularly and only solved the problem temporarily. The same tech support person (or, at least, somebody using the same name) had me repeat the same description several times in the same email message. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I was also told to use third-party software which had nothing to do with my issue. All in all, your typical tech support experience.

But my tweet wasn’t really about tech support. It was about the product. Thougb I find the overall concept behind the Fonera 2.0n router very interesting, its implementation seems to me to be lacking. In fact, it reminds me of several FLOSS development projects that I’ve been observing and, to an extent, benefitting from.

This is rapidly transforming into a rant I’ve had in my “to blog” list for a while about “thinking outside the geek box.” I’ll try to resist the temptation, for now. But I can mention a blog thread which has been on my mind, in terms of this issue.

Firefox 3 is Still a Memory Hog — The NeoSmart Files.

The blogpost refers to a situation in which, according to at least some users (including the blogpost’s author), Firefox uses up more memory than it should and becomes difficult to use. The thread has several comments providing support to statements about the relatively poor performance of Firefox on people’s systems, but it also has “contributions” from an obvious troll, who keeps assigning the problem on the users’ side.

The thing about this is that it’s representative of a tricky issue in the geek world, whereby developers and users are perceived as belonging to two sides of a type of “class struggle.” Within the geek niche, users are often dismissed as “lusers.” Tech support humour includes condescending jokes about “code 6″: “the problem is 6″ from the screen.” The aforementioned Eric S. Raymond wrote a rather popular guide to asking questions in geek circles which seems surprisingly unaware of social and cultural issues, especially from someone with an anthropological background. Following that guide, one should switch their mind to that of a very effective problem-solver (i.e., the engineer frame) to ask questions “the smart way.” Not only is the onus on users, but any failure to comply with these rules may be met with this air of intellectual superiority encoded in that guide. IOW, “Troubleshoot now, ask questions later.”

Of course, many users are “guilty” of all sorts of “crimes” having to do with not reading the documentation which comes with the product or with simply not thinking about the issue with sufficient depth before contacting tech support. And as the majority of the population is on the “user” side, the situation can be described as both a form of marginalization (geek culture comes from “nerd” labels) and a matter of elitism (geek culture as self-absorbed).

This does have something to do with my Fonera 2.0n. With it, I was caught in this dynamic whereby I had to switch to the “engineer frame” in order to solve my problem. I eventually did solve my Fonera authentication problem, using a workaround mentioned in a forum post about another issue (free registration required). Turns out, the “release candidate” version of my Fonera’s firmware does solve the issue. Of course, this new firmware may cause other forms of instability and installing it required a bit of digging. But it eventually worked.

The point is that, as released, the Fonera 2.0n router is a geek toy. It’s unpolished in many ways. It’s full of promise in terms of what it may make possible, but it failed to deliver in terms of what a router should do (route a signal). In this case, I don’t consider it to be a finished product. It’s not necessarily “unstable” in the strict sense that a software engineer might use the term. In fact, I hesitated between different terms to use instead of “stable,” in that tweet, and I’m not that happy with my final choice. The Fonera 2.0n isn’t unstable. But it’s akin to an alpha version released as a finished product. That’s something we see a lot of, these days.

The main other case which prompted me to send that tweet is “CivRev for iPhone,” a game that I’ve been playing on my iPod touch.

I’ve played with different games in the Civ franchise and I even used the FLOSS version on occasion. Not only is “Civilization” a geek classic, but it does connect with some anthropological issues (usually in a problematic view: Civ’s worldview lacks anthro’s insight). And it’s the kind of game that I can easily play while listening to podcasts (I subscribe to a number of th0se).

What’s wrong with that game? Actually, not much. I can’t even say that it’s unstable, unlike some other items in the App Store. But there’s a few things which aren’t optimal in terms of documentation. Not that it’s difficult to figure out how the game works. But the game is complex enough that some documentation is quite useful. Especially since it does change between one version of the game and another. Unfortunately, the online manual isn’t particularly helpful. Oh, sure, it probably contains all the information required. But it’s not available offline, isn’t optimized for the device it’s supposed to be used with, doesn’t contain proper links between sections, isn’t directly searchable, and isn’t particularly well-written. Not to mention that it seems to only be available in English even though the game itself is available in multiple languages (I play it in French).

Nothing tragic, of course. But coupled with my Fonera experience, it contributed to both a slight sense of frustration and this whole reflection about unfinished products.

Sure, it’s not much. But it’s “good enough” to get me started.

join k.t. blue designs

for our next children’s art class!

Friday, December 18th 3-4 p.m.

featured artist: calder

the children will learn about calder’s mobile art and the process of creating three-dimensional pieces of artwork. each child will create their own mobile with a variety of colorful objects.

$35/Child (maximum class size: 6)

NEW LOCATION: Town Hall Theatre Annex, 3430B Mt. Diablo Blvd. Lafayette, CA

to register, please e-mail katie@ktblue.com

2010 Schedule Coming Soon: Our 2010 schedule is coming soon! Stay tuned for an exciting collection of arts classes and the new addition of craft classes: felt purses! paper flower bouquets! heart scarves! all this and more…coming in 2010!

about k.t. blue art classes

designed for children ages 5-10, these art classes provide a fun and engaging opportunity for children to learn about artists and artist styles and design their own original artwork. during each class we will look at examples of an artist’s work, learn a bit about the artist’s life and then create a piece of artwork in that artist’s style.

“When in doubt, wear red.” – Bill Blass

“Oh, I love red.  I’m very loyal to my colors.” – Elizabeth Taylor

Mercedes Matter (1913 -2001)

Mrs. Matter was born Mercedes Carles in New York in 1913. Her father, the American modernist Arthur B. Carles, had studied with Matisse. Her mother, Mercedes de Cordoba, was a model for Edward Steichen. Ms. Matter grew up in Philadelphia, New York and Europe.

She began painting under her father’s supervision at age 6, and studied art at Bennett College in Millbrook, N.Y., and then in New York City with Maurice Sterne, Alexander Archipenko and Hans Hofmann.

In the late 1930’s, she was an original member of the American Abstract Artists organization and worked for the federal Works Progress Administration, assisting Fernand Léger on his mural for the French Line passenger ship company. Léger introduced her to Herbert Matter, the Swiss graphic designer and photographer, whom she married in 1939.

The Matters were active in the emerging New York art scene and also traveled frequently to Europe. Their closest friends included Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Franz Kline, Philip Guston, Alexander Calder and Willem de Kooning. They were also close to Alberto Giacometti, who was an important artistic role model for Mrs. Matter and a frequent photographic subject for her husband.

Beginning in 1953, Mrs. Matter taught at the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts), Pratt Institute and New York University. Based on her teaching experiences she wrote an article for Art News in 1963 titled ‘What’s Wrong with U.S. Art Schools?’ In it, she lamented the phasing out of the extended studio classes required to initiate ‘that painfully slow education of the senses,’ which she considered an artist’s life work.

The article prompted a group of Pratt students to ask her to form a school based on her ideas, which led, in 1964, to the founding of the New York Studio School. Originally in a loft on Broadway, the school gained almost immediate support from the Kaplan Fund, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and the Ford Foundation. It granted no degrees, had only studio classes and emphasized drawing from life. Its teachers, chosen by the students, included the artists Guston, Bradley Walker Tomlin, Charles Cajori, Louis Finkelstein and Sidney Geist; the art historian Meyer Schapiro; and the composer Morton Feldman.

The Matters lived on Macdougal Alley, where Mr. Matter had a studio in one of the eight small buildings that had housed what is now the Whitney Museum of American Art. It was his idea that the buildings would make a perfect home for the Studio School, which bought them from the Whitney family in 1967.

Mrs. Matter practiced as she preached, spending months, and sometimes years, working on drawings and paintings that usually began as still lifes and evolved into near-abstractions animated by thatched lines that attested to her her devotion to the work of Giacometti and Cézanne.

In addition to her art and teaching, she wrote articles on artists, including Hofmann, Kline and Giacometti. She wrote the text for a book of her husband’s photographs of Giacometti, published in 1987, four years after his death.

Mrs. Matter had her first solo show in New York at the Tanager Gallery in 1956. Her most recent was a double bill of drawings, shown in the Studio School’s gallery, and paintings, at Salander O’Reilly Galleries.

VIEW HER WORK HERE

Braniff International Airways (1st) Boeing 727-291 N408BN (msn 19993) (Alexander Calder) MIA, originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.

Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum.

Please click on photo or link below for full view, information, prints for sale and other photos:

http://airlinersgallery.com/2/26832aa/#/gallery/braniff-international-airways/braniff-international-727-200-n408bn-75-calder-grd-mia-bd-lr-101739/

For the first time in Rome, a major one-man exhibition featuring works by Alexander Calder gives us the opportunity to see up close the American artist’s famous Mobiles and Stabiles, wire sculptures, gouaches, drawings and oil painting and explore the fundamental stages of his creative cycle. From October 23, 2009 to February 14, 2010 the show at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni documents Calder’s entire creative cycle.
more…

“Dada e Surrealismo riscoperti”. Provocazione, dissacrazione, inconscio, rivoluzione… queste sono solo alcune parole chiave legate ai due movimenti. Ma il titolo e gli artisti esposti parlano da sé: Jean Arp, Costantin Brancusi, Victor Brauner, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalì, Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, René Magritte, Andrè Masson, Joan Miró, Henry Moore, Erik Olson, Francis Picabia, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Yves Tanguy… più altri nomi probabilmente meno noti (di qui il “riscoperti” nel titolo), comunque tutti artisticamente e storicamente importanti, per un totale di più di 500 opere esposte.

Prestiti da: Association Marcel Duchamp (Villiers-sous-Grez), Centre Georges Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Centre de création industrielle (Parigi), Fondation Arp (Clamart), Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna (Roma), Matisse Foundation (New York) e altri ancora consultabili -assieme all’elenco di tutte le opere, selezione delle principali e altre informazioni generali- sul sito ufficiale riportato qui sotto.

Ci sono ancora tre mesi di tempo (fino al 7 febbraio 2010), la mostra è al Complesso del Vittoriano a Roma e il costo è di 10 euro (7,50 euro la riduzione). E il venerdì e il sabato è aperta fino alle 23.30!

fabio

http://www.comunicareorganizzando.it/mostre.asp?id=167

W H A T : TECH CONNECT: CLOSE, ADAMS, AND CALDER

W H E N : Thursday, November 12, 2009 , 6 – 8:30PM
W H E R E : San Jose Museum of Art
M O R E :

• Alexander Calder: Color in Motion
• Ansel Adams: Early Works
• Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration
• Variations on a Theme
• SJMA INTERACTIVE
• San Jose > Downtown > Itinerary
• DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS: FREE COMMUNITY FAMILY DAY

I have just sold my trusty 4 megapixel Nikon digital camera to my cousin. I will be posting photos taken using that camera, in memoriam.

My friend Vong-on took the shot above using my Nikon. That is me in front of an Alexander Calder installation at the Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisboa, Portugal taken last July 2005.

Oj nu har det gått massa dagar sen sist. Jag jobbar helt enkelt för mycket och har en envis infektion i kroppen som inte släpper (svininfluensan???). Hur som helst så är jag ganska trött. Men det är väl alla vid den här årstiden.

Crafoord Auktioner ropar ut den här schyssta litografin av Alexander Calder (70×53 cm). Inget utropspris och jag kan inte ens gissa vad det skulle kunna tänkas vara. Calder (1898-1976) var en amerikansk skulptör och konstnär och han är mest känd för sina häftiga mobiler.

Al secondo piano del Palazzo delle esposizioni è allestita una sezione della mostra Calder, intitolata Alexander Calder nelle fotografie di Ugo Mulas, curata da Pier Giovanni Castagnoli per l’Archivio Ugo Mulas di Milano, in collaborazione con il quale il progetto è stato realizzato.

E’ esposta una selezione di circa ottanta immagini, tutte stampe ai sali d’argento su carta baritata, realizzate dallo stesso autore (vintage) risalenti agli anni 1963-1968, scattate nelle case-studio abitate dall’artista a Roxbury nel Connecticut o a Saché in Francia, ma anche in altri luoghi che videro la presenza di Calder o delle sue opere

Il grande fotografo italiano prematuramente scomparso (Pozzolegno, Brescia 1928 – Milano 1974), conobbe Calder nel 1962 a Spoleto, quando Giovanni Carandente lo chiamò a documentare la mostra Sculture nella città per la quale l’artista realizzò il grande Teodelapio, che in seguitò donò alla cittadina umbra. Da allora nacque una solida e in tramontata amicizia che diede origine a un formidabile corpus di fotografie, una parte delle quali venne pubblicata nel 1971 in un libro nato dalla collaborazione tra Ugo Mulas, il critico H. Harvard Arnason e lo stesso artista (U. Mulas e H- H. Arnason, Calder, Milano 1971).

Autoritratto di Ugo Mulas, riflesso nell’opera di Michelangelo Pistoletto, Vitalità del negativo, Roma, 1970
©Ugo Mulas

info: www.palazzoesposizioni.it

Here are some ideas for making your very own mobile. I’m currently working on a wooden one but following the principles of the abstract mobile in terms of construction. I want it to look similar to the fish one here.

Alexander Calder said, “To most people who look at a mobile, it’s no more than a series of flat objects that move. To a few, though, it may be poetry.” That’s what I’m aiming for, but it’s not as easy as anticipated. Here’s to a crafty challenge. Keep in mind that the challenge varies depending on the materials you use. If you use felt or fabric, you’ll have less difficulty achieving balance.   xo, m

Abstract Mobile

From Popular Science, 1954.

Cut abstract shapes from cardboard or light-gauge sheet metal.

For the arms, bend the ends of soft 16-gauge wire into loops and attach the cut-out shapes.

It's all about balance.

Disney Imagineer Rolly Crump with a few of his kinetic mobiles and sculptures, c.1963.

Instructions from here.

Felt Mobile

Materials
Wire coat hanger or other wire
Pliers with wire cutters
Wool rovings in a range of colours as well as undyed
Bowls with hot soapy and cold water
Wool felt
Needles and cotton, including one very long or ‘doll making’ needle
Beads or other embellishments
Fishing line or strong thread
Hot glue gun

Instructions here.

Bird & Twig Mobile

This one's fairly self-explanatory in terms of construction. You need to find twigs that are of similar weight or balance out each side with birds.

Basic instructions & bird template available here.

Paper Mobiles

Fine craft paper, fishing line, and wire at the top.

Notice how I started out ambitious at the top of this post? These require very few materials but are painstaking to construct because of the delicate nature of the materials. Fabulous for party decorations, I’d say.

Lastly, general tips I’ve been trying to follow:

THE SECRET: START FROM THE BOTTOM AND WORK TO THE TOP. There are many ways to design a work of hanging sculpture, and as many materials, but the assembly is always the same: start from the bottom.
1. SELECT & ARRANGE THE PIECES: Find, create the shapes you wish. Lay them on a large piece of paper. Draw lines connecting the bottom or end pieces.
2. BEGIN WIRING THE PIECES: Starting with the small end pieces first, then connecting the middle size systems together.
3. BALANCE THE TOP: The top bar is last. Connect the middle systems to the top bar, balance, and hang up your new creation.

Nous en reparlerons, je vous le rappellerai, mais d’emblée, alors que la nouvelle m’est parvenue il y a peu, je donnerai une nouvelle conférence en Sorbonne en 2010 sous l’égide de l’Observatoire Musical Français, le 17 avril prochain. Toujours enclun à travailler sur les liens entre musique et arts plastiques, je me pencherai cette année sur les liens très forts unissant le compositeur américain Earle Brown, le sculpteur Alexander Calder, et le peintre Jackson Pollock, pour une conférence intitulée : “Ouverture et mobilité dans la musique d’Earle Brown : une approche conceptuelle plastique”. Tout un programme donc auquel je vous convie d’autant plus que la séance comptera aussi les interventions de Victoria LLORT LLOPART pour “Le visuel et le sonore chez Nietzsche” et de Violaine ANGER pour “Le son et le visible. Comparaison de deux réflexions sur la partition musicale, celle de Paul Klee et celle de Vassili Kandinsky”. Bien à vous ///

W H A T : FREE COMMUNITY FAMILY DAY: DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS
W H E N : Sunday, November 1, 2009, 11am – 5pm
W H E R E : San Jose Museum of Art
M O R E :

• Alexander Calder: Color in Motion
• Ansel Adams: Early Works
• Chuck Close Prints: Process and Collaboration
• Variations on a Theme

Last year’s activities included stories by wonderful story teller Olga Loya, calaveras de azúcar (sugar skulls), flor de papel (paper flower), tin art, Frida Kahlo butterflies, and last but not least, the folkloric performance of the local group Tamunal, their instruments are worth a separate story.

Ready for Bay Area Day of the Dead festivities?

Rescheduled: Dance NOW Chicago’s dance party is now this Friday at 5:30pm. Get down!

I’ve visited Storm King Art Center several times in the last ten years.  Each time I’ve visited the experience has been totally different depending on the season, the weather and the people i’ve taken with me.  The sculptures transform the landscape and the landscapes transform the sculptures.

The Calder sculptures have always left a big impression on me.  The viewer can feel the weight of the sculptures in the field.  The experience of the sculpture changes from every vantage point.

Calder, Five Swords – iPhone Art using Gesture

Calder, Five Swords – iPhone Art using Gesture

Calder, Five Swords – iPhone Art using Brushes

Storm King – iPhone Art using Brushes

iPhone Art using Gesture

iPhone Art using Gesture